Swiss startup accuses Perplexity AI of stealing passive listening tech

DaVoice, doing business as SyteMLLabs, filed a heavily redacted suit in San Francisco federal court accusing Perplexity AI of misappropriating its wake-word detection technology after the two companies signed confidentiality and licensing agreements. DaVoice says it disclosed source code, training data and network architecture under those contracts, only to have Perplexity use the know-how to build its own competing system.

Perplexity's chief communication officer Jesse Dwyer called the suit a baseless attempt to claim ownership of standard wake-word technology, noting the agreement explicitly preserved Perplexity's right to build similar or competing products. DaVoice is seeking damages for lost profits, royalties, and willful misappropriation.

Perplexity, backed by funding tied to Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, is already fighting suits from the New York Times, Dow Jones, the New York Post, Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, though it recently won an appellate reversal letting its shopping tool keep accessing Amazon.

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